Gerard ‘Gerry’ Hawkins competed in the men’s light-flyweight boxing at the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games, losing a unanimous decision to Bulgaria’s Ismail Mustafov – an opponent who, in the subsequent years, was voted the Bulgarian boxer of the twentieth century, winning the World Championship title in 1982, four European amateur titles, a bronze medal at the Moscow Games themselves, and the light-flyweight gold medal at the Seoul 1988 Olympics as Ivaylo Marinov.

That the quality of opponent’s subsequent career contextualises Hawkins’s defeat is clear, but the defeat was a bitter one for a member of the Holy Trinity BC who had reached Olympic standard despite a chronic lack of quality opposition at both domestic and international level.

His post-fight frustration was evident: ‘I really trained hard for these Games. I went through three training sessions per day and never felt better, but I still lost. It’s very disheartening.’ Hawkins experienced defeat in the first round of a major competition for the fourth time in Moscow. He had been knocked out in the national light-flyweight final by Hugh Russell – his Holy Trinity clubmate – but the Ulster delegates successfully argued he would be stronger competing at flyweight and he was selected nonetheless.